


Armistice

by PaxieAmor



Series: Lady Iron of SHIELD [5]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: And Music, As does BroTP, Bromance still applies, F/M, I don't care if they're not both men, Paxie Likes Tags, There Are a Lot Of Musical References In This Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-13
Updated: 2012-04-16
Packaged: 2017-11-01 21:23:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxieAmor/pseuds/PaxieAmor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had a weird relationship. One refused to call it 'friendship'; the other didn't dare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Moves Like Jagger

**Author's Note:**

> So, in "[In Another's Eyes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/337052)", I briefly touch on Toni and Loki having a weird sort of friendship. This is an extension of that. It's more of a collection of short stories than a plot driven chapter fic; I'll be posting things as I think of them and they won't really have a chronological order. If one is supposed to go before another, I'll indicate it in the notes for that chapter ^_^ 
> 
> Enjoy!

It was another boring party celebrating another boring anniversary for another boring company that Toni had no interest in. If it had been a _charity_ that she was interested in, she would have actual enthusiasm rather than having to fake it all night. Also, she was wearing a dress. This was completely uncalled for, as there was no reason why she couldn’t have sported a tuxedo.

Batman didn’t have these problems and it was totally unfair.

“Who is this ‘Batman’?” a familiar voice asked. Toni turned towards the asker, her eyebrow quirking slightly.

“What on earth are you doing here, Loki?” she asked, a slightly worried tone in her voice. Their strange armistice was in its second or third month; he wasn’t taunting her about his next plan and she wasn’t threatening to call Thor whenever he showed up. She didn’t dare _think_ the word “friendship”, let alone call him her friend, as the last thing she wanted was to be thrown through another window. He might not save her this time. “If anyone sees you…”

“They’ll see someone who resembles a Mr. Zac Efron,” Loki replied, a mischievous grin on his face. “I am told he’s ‘incredibly dreamy’.” Toni rolled her eyes. “Am I wrong in this?”

“Not when you’re dealing with teenagers and twenty-something’s; when you’re dealing with me, however, you’d need someone a bit more mature.”

“Such as?”

“You can’t change now, someone would notice.”

“Ye of little faith, Antonia.” She shivered. It was a complete, fully body shiver that could probably be seen across the room. “…is something wrong?”

“Please don’t call me that?” she asked timidly. It was the first time she’d ever openly made a request of him. Before it was always beating around the bush; do you have to do that; is that really necessary; really, Loki, is that what we’re reduced to? “I really don’t like being called that; please call me Toni?”

She expected the world to somehow end; what she got was a very amiable “A reasonable request; as you wish, Toni.” She smiled.

“Thank you.” They made small talk for a minute or two before Loki cocked his ear to the music.

“This is that song you like,” he stated plainly. “The one that’s on your phone.” Toni chuckled, amused that he would realize that. The song in question was “Moves Like Jagger”; Toni had the whistle as her text alert, which surprised everyone. It was not the usual hard core death metal that she normally listened to. However, not only did Toni like the song, she liked the fact that her little whistling text alert was enough to get the song stuck in everyone’s head for the rest of the day. She was annoying people with very little effort and it made her feel all warm and fuzzy. Especially when she’d catch Coulson, or even _Fury_ whistling the song later in the day. Some days it was just awesome to be her.

It’s at this moment that she’s very much aware of Loki holding her hand and leading her to the dance floor. “Loki, what the hell?”

“Isn’t this what one does at an event such as this one?” he asked with a smile. “The dashing lord entices the beautiful damsel with a dance?”

“This isn’t _Cinderella_ , Loki.” He raised an eyebrow.

“You have a strange love of Midgardian fairy tales, Toni. I would also like to point out that you’re not doing much to resist my efforts.” She grinned slightly, shrugging her shoulders.

“Maybe I want to see if you’ve got the moves like Jagger.”

“You don’t want to make a certain captain jealous?”

“Captain?”

“Rogers. Or America, whichever you prefer.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “Cap and I are just friends. Barely, at that.” Toni kept herself at a distance from Cap; he was too good for her anyway. It was for the best.

“Whatever you say, Toni,” Loki said as he took her right hand in his left, placing his right hand on her hip. She placed her other hand on his shoulder, a curious look on her face.

“You don’t really believe you’ll be able to apply ball room dancing to this song… do you?”

“One way to find out.” Being that he was an Asgardian prince, Toni assumed that Loki would be well based in some form of dance. She expected ballroom. She did not expect Eastern Swing.

Step, step, rock, step.

Step, step, rock, spin.

There were double steps, triple steps, steps that Toni didn’t think were even part of swing dance, but he made them fit and she somehow followed, matching him move for move. And she was _enjoying_ it. When the song ended, she was laughing.

“That was insane!” she told him as he escorted her off the floor. “Where on earth did you learn to do that?”

“Nowhere,” he replied with a grin. “I learned it on Asgard.” She laughed again.

“You’re such a smart ass!”

“Is that a good thing?”

“When I’m talking about you, yes.” His grin melted into a smile as he brought her hand to his lips, placing a soft kiss upon her knuckles.

“It’s been a pleasure, Toni,” he said honestly. “But your captain is getting quite curious.”

“He’s not _my_ captain.”

“Keep telling yourself that; maybe you’ll believe it someday.” She watched him walk away, a bewildered smile on her face.

“Stark?” She turned around; it was Cap.

“Rogers?” They always kept this distance. Never Toni and Steve, always Cap/Rogers and Stark.

“Who was that?” he asked, watching suspiciously as Loki walked out of banquet hall.

“Just a friend.”


	2. Coldplay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She put on Coldplay, because that was the sort of morning she was having..

Toni didn't have bad days as often as she used to, but now it seemed like whenever she did, they were almost titanically bad. This, unfortunately, was one of those days.

She wished she could blame it on the fact she's stuck in her Stark Tower office doing paperwork, rather than somewhere building something fun, but that's really just a side effect; she's using all her back paperwork as an excuse to avoid Clint after almost killing him this morning.

It had been a complete accident and she honestly wasn’t sure who was more at fault; Clint for sneaking up on her like he did and putting his hands on her shoulders or herself for grabbing hold of his right arm, and hurling him over her shoulder with a force she wasn’t even aware she could muster, effectively sending him into a wall. She could hear the commotion around her, a few worried yells of Clint’s name, more angered yells of her own and what the fuck was she doing, she could have killed him… but she just stood there, her still outstretched arms quivering as she stared at the now unconscious archer who, for a moment, reminded her too much of too many people she didn’t want to think about, the ones who haunted her every nightmare.

The Ten Rings soldiers, who raped her mercilessly.

Anton Vanko, who never touched her but fucked with her mind in a way no one else ever has.

Justin Hammer, who really is the least terrifying person in the universe and therefore shouldn’t haunt her as much as he does.

“I… I’m sorry,” she whispered, ashamed of how her voice cracked as she spoke.

And then she ran.

Toni ran to her office and gave her secretary strict orders not to let anyone in and to tell everyone she was somewhere else, no matter how important it seemed. She didn’t trust the secretary to actually do this, however, so she locked the door from the inside (new lock that only she had the key too for instances like this) and turned off her phone. She strengthened the tinting on her windows so she could see out but no one could see in. Once she was satisfied that she was safe in her little hideaway, satisfied that no one would be able to get to her until she let them, she sat down at her desk and dove into the piles of paperwork she’d been neglecting.

She also put on Coldplay, because that’s the sort of morning she was having.

_And the tears come streaming down your face_

_When you lose something you can't replace_

_When you love someone, but it goes to waste_

_Could it be worse?_

“Yes, Chris Martin,” she replied. “It really could be worse.” She didn’t care that she was talking to someone who couldn’t possibly offer a rebuttal, someone couldn’t ask her how it could possibly get any worse… someone who couldn’t stop her, after an hour of seclusion, from getting into the secret liquor cabinet behind her collection of Sherlock Holmes novels, the one she kept just to remind herself of how far she’d come, and drinking everything she had in there.

One year of sobriety was about to go completely down the drain and she couldn’t bring herself to care. She wrapped her fingers around the neck of the first bottle she touched, smiling in spite of the fact she was going to completely ruin the life she had worked so hard to put back together after it was smashed, after she had lost so many pieces and yet was still able to create something whole… she’d drink to that, she supposed as she put the bottle to her lips and took a swig.

She expected to taste Jack Daniels. What she got was Pink Lemonade. She narrowed her eyes in confusion, sniffing the bottle. It definitely smelled like the whiskey she craved, but another drink still tasted of the harmless summer beverage. She went through the rest of the bottles: Baileys tasted only of coffee, Captain Morgan of raspberry iced tea, Tanqueray of orange Kool-Aid…

Toni considered this development for a moment of two before looking up at the ceiling; she could only think of one person able to mess with her like this.

“Loki, what the sodding fuck?” The trickster god appeared shortly after, leaning against the door she had put between herself and the rest of the world. It wasn’t long ago that the rest of the Avengers and SHIELD had found about her strange companionship with him, something that he himself finally acknowledged as an actual friendship. It didn’t mean that they would be too happy about him showing up at Stark Tower, however; security would show him in her office and someone would soon be over to make sure he wasn’t turning her over to the dark side or throwing her out another window… and fuck, did she ever want a drink before they arrived. “Give me back my alcohol.”

“No.” It was a simple enough reply, no emotion attached to it whatsoever; Toni wasn’t sure if that help or hurt things.

“This is none of your business, Loki,” she hissed, still tightly griping the bottle of whisky scented pink lemonade. “Turn it back.”

“I won’t.”

“Loki!”

“ _Antonia_.” Her eyes narrowed at him; his softened at her. “I cannot do much for you, Toni,” he continued, his voice only slightly more emotional now than it had been before. “But I _can_ stop you from making this mistake.” He drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “And I’ll enchant every bottle of alcohol in Midgard if I have to.”

“Why?” she asked, her eyes batting away the tears she felt forming in them. “Why would you care…” He was hurt by her words, but only let it show for a second.

“I have already agreed that you and I are friends, Toni… but I realize that it is more than that.”

“Oh really?” His face turned serious… no, not just serious. _Worried_. For the first time since Toni had met him, Loki looked at her and he was _worried_.

“You are my reflection, Toni,” he stated. “The light to the darkness in me… and I would be a fool not to realize that if you go down this path here and now, the light will go out and the Toni Stark you think no one loves will be lost to the darkness forever.” He walked over to her and took the bottle from her hand, resting his other hand on her cheek, wiping away the tears she failed to keep from falling away with his thumb. “And I’ll not let your light fade for anything.”

Before Toni could respond, there was a pounding at the door, Steve’s worried voice coming through loud and clear. Loki’s hand disappeared from her cheek, taking with it the rest of his body and every bottle of alcohol she had in the room. She blinked in surprise.

Seconds later, the door went flying across the room and Steve ran to her, gathering her into his arms and holding her tight. She blinked again.

“Um… hi?”

“Clint is _fine_ ,” Steve said, smoothing down her hair as he spoke. “And he’s pissed at all of us for yelling at you like we did…”

“Especially since it was my fault.” Toni looked past Steve to see Clint standing in the doorway, arms crossed in front of his chest, a sheepish grin on his face. “I shouldn’t have snuck up on you like that, not after all that shit with Hammer… I’m sorry, Tone.” Toni smiled a little, nodding.

“No worries,” she replied. “Next time, I’ll try not to throw you so hard.” That got a laugh, which made her feel better. “What the hell happened to my door?”

“I… I was worried I wouldn’t make it in time,” Steve admitted. “I didn’t know if you had any booze stashed here, and I…”

“I almost did,” Toni admitted, snuggling against Steve’s chest when he tightened his embrace. “But I found a reason not to.”

She never told Steve that the reason was a Norse god who somehow saw the good in her when she couldn’t. Nor did she explain the “thank you” note she left on her desk before he and Clint took her home or why she smiled when she, and only she, heard the wholehearted “thank _you_ ”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so everyone knows, I love Coldplay. It just tends to be what I listen to when I'm having a bad day, like I am today. And whenever I have a bad day, Toni tends to suffer for it. Poor thing.


End file.
